She has been in Dunedin meeting interested parties with a view to rolling out the CupCycling initiative in the city early next year, aimed at lessening the number of disposable cups polluting the environment and reducing waste in landfills.
CupCycling — the brainchild of Mrs Fry and her husband, Nick — involves a customer paying a one-off "bond" as a membership to the programme and then getting ongoing use of a reusable cup from any participating cafe.
They return the dirty cup to participating cafes, get a clean cup with their drink and pay for the drink.
The initiative was launched in the Tasman region in July 2017 and since then nine regions have come on board. It has even been adopted in Prince George, in British Columbia, Canada.
Fifteen years ago, Mr and Mrs Fry opened a coffee roastery in Wellington and, at that time, decided to embark on a sustainable journey.
They decided to try to reduce the "horrific" impact of the industry on the environment.
In 2010, they launched IdealCup, the first New Zealand-designed and made, barista-grade BPA-free reusable cup.
They asked cafes they supplied coffee to if they were interested in it and it started to gain some traction.
When they moved to Motueka, they had a vision of making the town disposable cup-free.
The town was very supportive of the idea, and there was also wider support from New Zealand.
They realised they needed to formalise that structure, so with support from the Tasman District Council, which wanted to see it rolled out to the wider community, they created CupCycling. During her visit to Dunedin, which was facilitated by Laura Cope, of the Use Your Own Cup Cafe Guide, Mrs Fry met representatives from the Dunedin City Council, Doubt Not Compost and various cafes. The response was "resounding and overwhelmingly positive" and she hoped it would launch in the city by mid-February at the latest.
She said the next step was to give the council a list of cafes that had shown interest and an indication of how much funding it would like. But regardless of that, it was going to happen, she said.
"This is a community thing for me. It’s not about money, it’s about making change. Let’s just make this happen," she said.CupCycling had a live feed that showed how many cups were being diverted from the landfill, providing tangible evidence of what cafes were investing in.
Mrs Fry described herself as "a bit smitten" with Dunedin, saying it was a city that still had a tight community feel. Everyone she met had been so supportive and energised.
She was also very impressed by the city being named Most Beautiful City at the 2018 Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards.
Ms Cope said her aim was to make Dunedin single-use cup-free by 2020, and she believed that was achievable.
